MAVERICK VIÑALES AND KTM ARE 2013 MOTO3 WORLD CHAMPIONS!

10.11.2013
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Spain’s Maverick Viñales emerged triumphant in the 2013 Moto3 World Championship in a cliff-hanger finish to the season that gave KTM its second consecutive world title since the introduction of the discipline in 2012.

KTM riders finished top four in the championship with Alex Rins, Luis Salom and Álex Márquez finishing behind Maverick Viñales in that order.KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Pit Beirer, Head of KTM Motorsports were at the race to see KTM take its second title.

Pit Beirer: “It was incredible to be here to see these three guys on the KTMs fight it out for the title and it was impossible to tell which one of these would be the winner. It has been another great racing season for KTM. In the end it was Maverick who stayed calm at the right moment and managed to win and we give him our warm and sincere congratulations for a job well done. I think this also proves that KTM delivers equal quality and material to our customer teams as well as our own factory team.”

The final round saw Viñales with his KTM RC250 GP on the podium with KALEX-KTM rider Jonas Folger of Germany in second and Rins in third. Viñales won the title with his third race victory of the season in a result that was decided in the last corners on the Valencia circuit in front of 104,000 euphoric Spanish fans. It was always going to be a fight to the last between the three title contenders. Luis Salom of the Red Bull Ajo KTM factory team went into the race as the points leader but he, Viñales and Rins were only five points apart.

After playing cat and mouse with Viñales and Rins for the first 14 of 24 laps it was disaster and disappointment for Salom who crashed out. He scrambled back into the race but eventually finished fourteenth, fighting for points right to the end. If something had happened between Viñales and Rins at the front, he was still in with a chance to take the title. Salom was generous with his congratulations of the new champion and can still be satisfied with a top season where he was the winningest rider in Moto3.

Viñales, a recognized talent, ended his final season by taking the title with just three race wins. Salom won seven and Rins won six races with the Spanish National Anthem being played at all races. Viñales and Salom now move up to Moto2 as teammates in 2014 while Rins, the youngest of the three will complete another season in Moto3.

Salom’s place in the Red Bull Ajo KTM Factory Team is being taken by Australian Jack Miller, who races with Karel Hanika, the 2013 Red Bull Rookies MotoGP Cup winner and Danny Kent of the UK who returns to the team where he raced in 2012.